Do Flu Vaccines Have More Reported Side Effects Than Other Vaccines?

Just over 160 million doses of flu vaccine will be distributed in the United States this season.

Since 2006, over 1.6 trillion doses of flu vaccine have been distributed in the United States, which equals about the combined total of all the other vaccines we use, including DTaP, rotavirus, hepatitis B, MMR, Tdap, and HPV, etc.

Overall, since we give so many more flu vaccines than any other vaccine, we can expect to get more reports of side effects from those flu vaccines.

That’s simple math.

On the other hand though, after getting a flu vaccine, you should not expect to have any extra side effects as compared to getting any other vaccine.